This invention relates to protectors to be positioned on a user's body to protect against puncture wounds thereof and, more particularly, conformable body protectors which can protect against puncture wounds due to the manipulation of syringes having a needle thereon and of such syringe needles.
Many diseases can be transmitted to others if tissue or fluids taken from one already suffering from such a disease are somehow introduced into another's body. Health care providers, such as physicians, nurses or medical technicians, are among those most likely to be in contact with people afflicted with such diseases. In carrying out their duties, such care providers often draw blood samples from, or inject medications into, the bodies of such disease sufferers for various reasons, or they must in some manner manage other operations with the resulting samples in the course of performing their duties.
Such samples are often obtained through the use of syringes fitted with a corresponding needle. Samples so obtained are often injected into a container of some sort in preparation for testing or as part of the various testing operations. During the various manipulations in these procedures, and in medication injection procedures, the persons involved therewith, including the above care providers, run the risk of being accidentally punctured in a finger, or elsewhere in their bodies, by the sharply pointed tips of the needles used in such sampling or medicating syringes. Such a puncture leaves a painful wound and can carry with it a substantial risk of infection to one so punctured, thereby exposing one so injured to the possibility of subsequently suffering the same disease as the person in whom the needle involved was first inserted.
Thus, some kind of protective arrangement is often desired for use by those persons directly involved during these kinds of procedures. However, many of the protectors currently in use are intended to be placed directly around a needle or around an entire syringe with its needle. These kinds of protectors often cannot be used at the time the protection is most needed, during various manipulations of a syringe fitted with a needle or manipulations of just a needle. Other existing protectors which can be used by a person performing such manipulations are often clumsy and ill suited for someone required to accomplish what are often delicate and intricate maneuvers, or they are independent entities which can be easily separated from the location in which they are needed. Thus, there is desired a protector for the person, using a syringe needle in situations carrying some risk of disease if an accidental puncture should occur, which avoids these problems.